Feeling My Age

Though the title of this blog is feeling my age, I should probably have titled it not feeling my age. I’m 51, yet mentally I still think I’m 25. I enjoy rock concerts, and like nothing better than to get down in the mosh pit with the kids. Unfortunately, my body lets me know the next day I’m no longer young.

I’d been having trouble with my right leg the past two weeks. When it finally got to where I could hardly walk, I went to the doctor. Yes, I do put things like that off. When you’ve got a ten thousand dollar deductible, you don’t run to the doctor with every sniffle you have. Turns out I pulled the quadricep muscle in my right leg doing kickboxing. My doctor told me it was time to start doing low impact aerobics. Nothing like hitting a girl when she’s already down.

Those words sent the feeling of old age flooding in. Without knowing it, the doctor basically told me I was getting old. On the drive home, as I wallowed in my self-pity, something occurred to me. Wasn’t Sarah ninety when she had a child? Sure enough Genesis 17:17 reads, Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”

If Sarah can have a baby at that age, why do I need to slow down?

The answer is I don’t have to. I just have to be careful what it is I do. God gave Sarah the ability to have a child at her age. He just hasn’t given me the ability to jump up and down headbanging to rock music at the age of fifty. There’s certain things the human body is not made for. That’s one of them. Not that I’ve ever been particularly hard on my body. It’s not like I rock climb or anything, but it would just be nice to know I had the option should I chose to.

But that’s okay. I still have a bucket list of things I want to do that doesn’t include all that hard energy on my body. One of my goals is to go to the Professional Bull Riders Championship in Las Vegas. That means I’ll be sitting while the young people are getting their bodies knocked around. Good eye candy with the cowboys without the stress on my joints.

My hardest problem right now is finding low impact aerobics that I enjoy. I’m sure I’ll come across something, but for right now, I think I’ll just whine a bit more and lounge around thinking about how old I am. Then I’ll get the weights back out and return to work.

What makes you feel old? Is there anything you can no longer do that you used to? What is one of the things on your bucket list? Drop me a line, I’d love to hear from you.

As Christians, we hear all the time we should bless others, but with work and money constraints, it’s not always easy. 30 in 30 shows you how to bless others every day for one month. The best part, each blessing is inexpensive and takes very little time. And the more you bless others, the more you’ll feel blessed as well.